Journeys Around the Medicine Wheel: A Story of Indigenous Research in a Western University

Abstract

These simple Cherokee words of greeting enfold an American Indian reality and knowledge system based on the interconnectedness of all things. American Indian ontologies and epistemologies are quite different from most Western paradigms. However, rather than being accepted and respected as coevals within Western universities, Indigenous paradigms, when acknowledged at all, is most often considered as data that informs Western research (Cajete, 2000). In this article, I explore some of the ways in which Western Research paradigms suppress the sacred aspects of Indigenous people's epistemologies. I then describe the Medicine Wheel Paradigm upon which I based my PhD research, which incorporates spiritual experience as one of the four key elements of human experience.